#the scene was hilarious but also devastating

[thxmomentiknew]

the funeral scene is even more sad and telling than the bridge because she’s not only having dreams about her daughter in law killing her for money, she dreams that her own children don’t see her as a person but only for what she can give them - money, possessions, connections. she just died and all they care about is what they are going to gain out of it

[raineyraven]

just watched vide noir (2022) and i have to say the tragedy of a man whose love leaves him because he wasn't what she needed him to be, who through his journey to find her again became the man she wanted him to be so that he could get to her, only to reach her and find that it's too late to get her back, who grew and changed in his quest for someone who was always going to be out of his reach and he didn't know it until he'd undergone that change?? that shit fucks oh my god.

[glacialswordsman]

[leafy-m]

My stupid story is 20k now how I do make it stop 😵

[hanahanumana]

From AnaMaria Abramovic on Fb

Paste magazine has done an article about Michael and how underrated he is in Good Omens and I found a transcript since it's behind a paywall. Here's the link if anyone wants to subscribe. 💙

https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/amazon-prime-video/good-omens-michael-sheen-underrated-performance-explained-streaming

There’s so much to love about Prime Video’s Good Omens. A delightful adaptation of the popular Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett novel of the same name, the series is romantic, thoughtful, hilarious, and heartfelt by turns. The story of the almost-apocalypse and what comes afterward, it wrestles with big concepts like destiny, free will, and forgiveness, all framed through the lens of an unorthodox relationship between an angel and a demon whose love for one another is a key to saving the world.

As anyone who has watched Good Omens already knows, nothing about this series works without the pair of lead performances at its center. Stars David Tennant and Michael Sheen—who play the demon Crowley and the angel Aziraphale, respectively—have the kind of lighting-in-a-bottle chemistry that’s the stuff of legend, and their characters’ every interaction conveys both their deep affection for one another and the Earth they’ve made their home. Their romance is the emotional linchpin around which most of the series turns, and their heartbreaking separation in the Season 2 finale is so devastating precisely because we’ve seen how necessary the two are to each other’s lives.

But it’s Sheen’s performance in that final scene that really twists the knife. As Aziraphale’s face crumples following his and Crowley’s long-awaited kiss, the actor manages to convey what feels like every possible human emotion in the span of less than thirty seconds as the angel realizes what he has both had and just lost. The moment is emotionally brutal to watch, particularly after sitting through five and a half episodes of Aziraphale looking as lovestruck as the lead in any rom-com. Sheen makes it all look effortless, shifting from giddy joy to devastated longing and everything in between, and we really don’t talk enough about how powerful and underrated his work in this series truly is.

Though he’s half of the central duo that makes Good Omens tick, Sheen’s role often tends to get overshadowed by his co-star’s. It’s not difficult to see why, given that Tennant gets to spend most of the show swanning around in tight trousers looking like the Platonic ideal of the charming bad boy, complete with flaming red hair and dramatic eyewear. Tennant also benefits from Crowley’s much more sympathetic emotional arc. I mean, it’s hard not to love a cynical demon with a heart of gold who’s been pining after his angelic best friend for literal millennia even after being cast out from Heaven. Of course, viewers are drawn to that—likely a lot more easily than the story of an angel who’s simply trying the best he can to do the right thing as he wrestles with his role in God’s Ineffable Plan. Plus, let’s be real, Tennant’s sizeable Doctor Who fanbase certainly doesn’t hurt his character’s popularity.

As a performer, Sheen has a long history of playing both real people (Tony Blair, David Frost, Brian Clough) and offbeat villains (Prodigal Son’s Martin Whitly, Underworld’s Lucian, the Twilight Saga’s Aro). In some ways, the role of a fussy, bookish angel is playing more than a bit against type for him—Gaiman himself has said he originally intended for Sheen to be Crowley—but in his capable hands, Aziraphale becomes something much more than a simple avatar for the forces of Good (or even of God, for that matter). With a soft demeanor and a positively blinding smile, Sheen’s take on the character consistently radiates warmth and goodness, even as it contains surprisingly hidden depths. The former guardian of the Eastern Gate of Eden who gifted a fleeing Adam and Eve his flaming sword and befriended the Serpent who caused their Fall, Azirphale isn’t a particularly conventional angel. He enjoys all-too-human indulgences like food and wine, runs a Hoarders-esque bookshop that never seems to sell anything, and spends most of his time making heart eyes at the being that’s meant to be his hereditary adversary.

Given the much more difficult task of playing the literal angel to Tennant’s charming devil, Sheen must find a way to make ideas like goodness and forgiveness as interesting and fun to watch as their darker counterparts. It’s a generally thankless task, but one that Sheen tackles with gusto, particularly in the series’ second season, as Good Omens explores Aziraphale’s slowly evolving idea of what he can and cannot accept in terms of being a soldier of Heaven. His growing understanding that the truth of creation is colored in shades of grey and compromise is often conveyed through little more than Sheen’s deftly shifting expressions and body language.

Our pop culture consistently struggles to portray the idea of goodness as something compelling or worth watching. Explicitly “good” characters, particularly those who are religiously coded, are frequently treated as the butt of some sort of unspoken joke they aren’t in on, used to underline the idea that faith is a form of naivety or that kindness is somehow a weakness. For a lot of people, the entire concept of turning the other cheek is a sucker’s bet, and believing in something greater than oneself, be it a higher power or a sense of purpose, is a waste of time. But Good Omens is a story grounded in the idea that faith, hope, and love—for one another, God, and the entire world—are active verbs. And nowhere is that more apparent than in Sheen’s characterization of the soft angel whose old-fashioned waistcoats mask a spine of steel and who refuses to give up—on Crowley, on humanity, or on the idea that Heaven is still something that can be saved.

Though he and Tennant have pretty much become a matched set at this point (both on and off-screen), Sheen’s performance has rarely gotten the critical accolades it deserves. (Tennant alone was nominated for a BAFTA for Season 2, and Sheen was categorized as a supporting actor when the series’ competed in the 2019 Saturn Awards.) But it is his quiet strength that holds up so much of the rest of the show around him, and Sheen deserves to be more frequently recognized for it. That he makes it look so easy is just another sign of how good his performance really is.

[ingravinoveritas]

Lovely new article about Michael in Paste magazine. Article is behind a paywall, so here is a transcription (with thanks to the person on FB who transcribed it, and the parts in bold are my own emphasis).

There’s so much to love about Prime Video’s Good Omens. A delightful adaptation of the popular Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett novel of the same name, the series is romantic, thoughtful, hilarious, and heartfelt by turns. The story of the almost-apocalypse and what comes afterward, it wrestles with big concepts like destiny, free will, and forgiveness, all framed through the lens of an unorthodox relationship between an angel and a demon whose love for one another is a key to saving the world.

As anyone who has watched Good Omens already knows, nothing about this series works without the pair of lead performances at its center. Stars David Tennant and Michael Sheen—who play the demon Crowley and the angel Aziraphale, respectively—have the kind of lighting-in-a-bottle chemistry that’s the stuff of legend, and their characters’ every interaction conveys both their deep affection for one another and the Earth they’ve made their home. Their romance is the emotional linchpin around which most of the series turns, and their heartbreaking separation in the Season 2 finale is so devastating precisely because we’ve seen how necessary the two are to each other’s lives.

But it’s Sheen’s performance in that final scene that really twists the knife. As Aziraphale’s face crumples following his and Crowley’s long-awaited kiss, the actor manages to convey what feels like every possible human emotion in the span of less than thirty seconds as the angel realizes what he has both had and just lost. The moment is emotionally brutal to watch, particularly after sitting through five and a half episodes of Aziraphale looking as lovestruck as the lead in any rom-com. Sheen makes it all look effortless, shifting from giddy joy to devastated longing and everything in between, and we really don’t talk enough about how powerful and underrated his work in this series truly is.

Though he’s half of the central duo that makes Good Omens tick, Sheen’s role often tends to get overshadowed by his co-star’s. It’s not difficult to see why, given that Tennant gets to spend most of the show swanning around in tight trousers looking like the Platonic ideal of the charming bad boy, complete with flaming red hair and dramatic eyewear. Tennant also benefits from Crowley’s much more sympathetic emotional arc. I mean, it’s hard not to love a cynical demon with a heart of gold who’s been pining after his angelic best friend for literal millennia even after being cast out from Heaven. Of course, viewers are drawn to that—likely a lot more easily than the story of an angel who’s simply trying the best he can to do the right thing as he wrestles with his role in God’s Ineffable Plan. Plus, let’s be real, Tennant’s sizeable Doctor Who fanbase certainly doesn’t hurt his character’s popularity.

As a performer, Sheen has a long history of playing both real people (Tony Blair, David Frost, Brian Clough) and offbeat villains (Prodigal Son’s Martin Whitly, Underworld’s Lucian, the Twilight Saga’s Aro). In some ways, the role of a fussy, bookish angel is playing more than a bit against type for him—Gaiman himself has said he originally intended for Sheen to be Crowley—but in his capable hands, Aziraphale becomes something much more than a simple avatar for the forces of Good (or even of God, for that matter). With a soft demeanor and a positively blinding smile, Sheen’s take on the character consistently radiates warmth and goodness, even as it contains surprisingly hidden depths. The former guardian of the Eastern Gate of Eden who gifted a fleeing Adam and Eve his flaming sword and befriended the Serpent who caused their Fall, Azirphale isn’t a particularly conventional angel. He enjoys all-too-human indulgences like food and wine, runs a Hoarders-esque bookshop that never seems to sell anything, and spends most of his time making heart eyes at the being that’s meant to be his hereditary adversary.

Given the much more difficult task of playing the literal angel to Tennant’s charming devil, Sheen must find a way to make ideas like goodness and forgiveness as interesting and fun to watch as their darker counterparts. It’s a generally thankless task, but one that Sheen tackles with gusto, particularly in the series’ second season, as Good Omens explores Aziraphale’s slowly evolving idea of what he can and cannot accept in terms of being a soldier of Heaven. His growing understanding that the truth of creation is colored in shades of grey and compromise is often conveyed through little more than Sheen’s deftly shifting expressions and body language.

Our pop culture consistently struggles to portray the idea of goodness as something compelling or worth watching. Explicitly “good” characters, particularly those who are religiously coded, are frequently treated as the butt of some sort of unspoken joke they aren’t in on, used to underline the idea that faith is a form of naivety or that kindness is somehow a weakness. For a lot of people, the entire concept of turning the other cheek is a sucker’s bet, and believing in something greater than oneself, be it a higher power or a sense of purpose, is a waste of time. But Good Omens is a story grounded in the idea that faith, hope, and love—for one another, God, and the entire world—are active verbs. And nowhere is that more apparent than in Sheen’s characterization of the soft angel whose old-fashioned waistcoats mask a spine of steel and who refuses to give up—on Crowley, on humanity, or on the idea that Heaven is still something that can be saved.

Though he and Tennant have pretty much become a matched set at this point (both on and off-screen), Sheen’s performance has rarely gotten the critical accolades it deserves. (Tennant alone was nominated for a BAFTA for Season 2, and Sheen was categorized as a supporting actor when the series’ competed in the 2019 Saturn Awards.) But it is his quiet strength that holds up so much of the rest of the show around him, and Sheen deserves to be more frequently recognized for it. That he makes it look so easy is just another sign of how good his performance really is.

I love this so much. The thoroughly well-deserved praise for Michael's incredible performance as Aziraphale, but also that Aziraphale and Crowley's relationship is specifically described as a "romance." And of course, the first sentence of the last paragraph that acknowledges how much Michael and David are indeed a "matched set" that cannot (and should not) be separated...

[danandfuckingjonlmao]

ok some things i LIKED about tua 4 since we all have talked exclusively about what we hated (SPOILERS AHEAD):

idc what anyone says the baby shark bit was iconic every time it came on i jammed

klaus had a comic book storyline from hotel oblivion!! let’s go source material!!

diego and luther being himbos

allison and klaus friendship

the entire birthday party scene was hilarious and fun and so THEM ok

the road trip scene that was in the trailer such iconic sibling goofy clownery they’re fucking idiots

klaus. he was in it. any time i get to see my little freak is time well spent.

incredibly unpopular opinion but i liked the ending i think they need an end from the cycle of apocalypses and suffering like they deserve a rest they’ve earned it and it was sweet that they all went together and the “i love you guys………but you’re all such fucking assholes” and then “fuck you” and everyone laughing and crying and THEN AND THEN ALL THE CHARACTERS FROM THE VARIOUS SEASONS BEING AT THE END i was SOBBING

klaus having a podcast of himself giving himself affirmations like that’s so funny

they actually gave somewhat of a shit about each other like diego was so DAD my babies have grown up but not too much they’re still fucking toddlers

lila is so pretty and funny and hot and unhinged she means so much to me

lila and klaus friendship!! lila and allison!! bonding!!

gene and jean were SUCH classic umbrella academy characters. loved them.

viktor gets all the pussy

i cannot stress how much all of the group scenes were so fucking sibling i love them ok

NO LUTHER AND ALLISON INCEST THANK FUCK

THUNDERBOLT THE GHOST DOG <3<3<3

klaus and claire oh my god i love uncle klaus so much and he loves her so much

seeing sober klaus and how hard he tried and then the heartbreak when that went away because he’s KLAUS he’s gerard way’s trauma self insert. as much as i want klaus to be safe and content and free from all this bullshit it was just so consistent and i can appreciate that. and i cried like a little bitch it was truly devastating but it was just sooooo klaus. also getting to see him make it incredibly clear that he didn’t want his powers back—him being the ONLY ONE who didn’t want his powers back—was important to me idk. and he was LOVED like he has a family!! he is cared for!! ahhHHHHHH!! love it

claire was great and getting to see her and allison and their tumultuous relationship and their love for each other after all of these seasons of allison looking for her and just wanting to be with her daughter

klaus got dave’s dog tags <3

more flashbacks to brellie kids!!

getting answers to some series-long mysteries

the underground subway system between timelines was so fucking cool and mindfucky 100/10

klaus’s look being reminiscent of s1 sorry that was my favourite klaus look ok

their sort of evolved powers when they got them back

so many good one liners and comedic scenes

ben being a crypto bro is SO FUNNY

will add stuff as i think of it. this is incredibly out of character for me i am an eternal pessimist but i did enjoy s4 (mostly because, as an eternal pessimist, my expectations are always low) so here we are.

[grntaire]

this is hilarious but i’m gonna talk here

this season, michael sheen did some of the most impressive acting that i’ve ever seen. i laughed the most and cried the hardest during scenes with him and he was so perfectly captivating the entire time.

aziraphale is a character who i think a lot of actors would treat unseriously, adopting the flamboyant gay comic relief archetype. a lot of writers also would’ve exploited this angle too but neil would literally never boil aziraphale down to that lol. but michael shows so much love for this character and in turn i think it makes the queer community feel loved and seen. i know it makes me feel loved and seen.

aziraphale’s arc is clear as fucking day an allegory for queer deconstruction from an oppressive religious environment. and michael sheen brought that to life so brilliantly and expertly and with such reverence and compassion that it makes my heart ache just to think about it. it’s what made the ending so devastating–the polarizing sides within aziraphale had never both come to the surface at once with such fervency before. it was agonizing and raw and gritty and he played it perfectly.

it’s so clear that he truly gets not just aziraphale as a character but what he represents, too. and the fact that he is able to play him so well is truly mind boggling. truly, one of the most beautiful performances i have ever seen. give this man an emmy right the fuck now

[nalyra-dreaming]

I've seen the episode!!!

(Some comments and) SPOILERS!!!!

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Louis saying it was a betrayal and that he wants to be punished for it just when he finds happiness again via a hallucination of Lestat is so... ugh. Louis, honey, god. Also him imagining Lestat biting him - as a punishment, but he also wants it so badly, baring his neck, not trying to fight it, offering himself up there, he just wants the connection so badly. 😭 And god, Louis having Lestat call him out on his own denial. Damn. And Louis knowing he invited this Lestat as a distraction.

Also... that was definitely foreshadowing to how Louis will think the trial went.

And of course it would be a bat. Of course.™

Claudia driving them onwards, not giving one shit is just... incredible. Delainey is Claudia.

I was also right that she honed her senses and available gifts, more than Louis has his (which fits)

Daniel calling their plight the hunt for Moby Dick

Claudia is also... beautifully hopeful, and thereby almost desperately (intentionally) naive. She just wants to connect, so badly. To find more of their kind. And closes her eyes to what she sees. *deep sigh*

That "Adam and Even and God" comment was hilarious. Oh man, I cannot wait to see what the show will make of / with QotD and Memnoch etc.

Not only is Louis aware of forgotten memories now, he actively pursues them, and he has apparently read the missing pages before. And knows he has forgotten.

Claudia's diaries are unreliable, too (as predicted). Also, Louis correcting his own tale there, lol. Also: Armand‘s look and suggestion there.

Daniel and his little speech as to how he works… you go Daniel. “Here’s almost all the story“ lol

“Human affairs“

The revenants.... "the blood is bad here" *shivers* - I BET that's already setting up the "turning fails" arc with Amel, right there

God that old vampire connecting with Claudia, and then throwing herself into the fire in despair. God.

Morgan's arc was nicely condensed, the scene fittingly horrific

I live for Claudia speaking all the languages, but I noticed some of the subtitles were wrong

Whoever doubted DM happening... well. Sorry, but I AM seeing it. The looks, the smirks, the bitching.

Also "real Rashid" (lmao) - who, btw, does not wear a mask! What if the encounter with Eudoxia Marius had went differently and this is Rashid?

... someone wanting to buy a tryptich they haven't even put up for sale... *coughs* Marius? *coughs* (I mean, who else would know they have it? Or the Talamasca, maybe)

God that Dubai bedroom screams cage. And Armand controlling even the lights with his little iPad. Someone edit a blender into a screenshot of that scene.

The look Lestat gives Claudia at that last part of Louis' little speech. Devastating.

Also: the "I do I do I do I do I do"... Louis. Sweetie. I mean, I get it, but still.

Armand's comment that the boy from San Francisco is still in Daniel. Now if that is not foreshadowing.

A propos foreshadowing: Louis saying he will not choose the fire while Claudia walks the earth. *help*

"We cannot be the only good ones". Yeah... about that. -.-

Louis being so relieved that what Claudia wrote was not the truth

The. Score.

Louis pacifying Armand there with the little touches at the end. LOL (the whole setup makes me wonder if ARMAND has also forgotten some things btw). Also that little thank you kiss

The Groan. Once more seemingly when Armand is displeased, so it could be a metaphysical manifestation after all, especially since Louis seems to comment on it. (It could also be a red herring, we'll see.)

Daniel‘s “we‘ll get to you“ to Armand (lol)

Louis‘ guilty look to Lestat when he tries to pep talk Claudia 😭

EDIT: there were two very short flahback scenes with a comment to memory, which is setting up the big one later, no doubt about it, ugh

I legit teared up so often.

I have missed them all so much.

It's all I wanted, and more. Cannot wait to scream about it with everyone.

Also, last but not least: can I just say how glad I am our writers are playwrights.

[huiyi07]

some of my top haikyuu fanfictions (ranked accordingly)

Come Morning Light (354k) by SharkbaitSekki is the saddest, most devastating fic i have ever read. If you like gen fics, karasuno family, and angst, this genuinely hit all those boxes and more for me and changed my life because I read those sexy 350k words in less than 24 hours when i was 13 yrs old and i haven't ever forgotten this fic. I promise the premise is kinda intimidating and all but i swear to GOD this is my atyd. this is my in another life. this is my roman empire

the future is female (85k) by earlgray_milktea is the cutest, but at the same time one of the most satisfying fics i've ever read. just a completely enjoyable and investing fic all the way, and again the premise does sound kinda trope-y and all but this fic is so fun! and smart and clever and important! yes it is basically hinata as a girl posing as a boy just to be taken seriously in the volleyball scene, but it goes about it in such a smart way and! it stretches all the way from the start to the post-timeskip of haikyuu (but it's not a super long read).

national hot dad alliance is now calling... (58k) by dicaeopolis, owlinaminor is probably a fic you've seen before, and if you haven't read it it probably means you hate chatfics and think they're dumb but i PROMISE this fic is singlehandedly the most hilarious thing i have ever read. 58k doesn't sound extremely long, but this dumb silly thing lasted me so long because i would just read a bit whenever i needed a laugh, more than that it was also lowkey so sad towards the end and it didn't need to be, but it really adds to the completeness of this fic and i love it

chasing gold (45k) by skiecas is gonna be, like, the only fic here with hardcore romance and some sus bits that you can honestly just skip. Premise is basically Iwaoi throughout the years since highschool with a focus on the olympics, specifically; and i'm currently posting this at the time of the paris olympics szn, so if you're feeling festive, this is the fic! i also love when romance fics expand on the world around them, and this fic does exactly that with other characters' involvement and the overall amazingly fun, dramatic and grand backdrop of the olympics. such a good fic!

Come Back (25k) by Soralith deserves to be a STAPLE of haikyuu fanfiction, right up there with those mofos in another life and the galaxy is endless. why? well, it hits all the boxes - slash (kagehina), angst, DEATH, made me sob uncontrollably. read this guys its sad lol

[nepenthean-sleep]

griddlehark fic recs, part 5

hi happy end of 2023 here is part 5 of my griddlehark fic rec series. thank you everyone for your wonderful fics getting us through the alectopause 🖤🖤🖤 all fics here in this part are rated G or T, and tumblr usernames have been added if i could find them (sorry for the notification!). here is part 1 and part 3. M and E fic recs are here because tumblr: part 2, part 4, and part 6 (forthcoming).

carrion comfort, despair (not feast on thee) T - NotAFicWriter short post-ntn spec oneshot. it's a kiriona and harrow duking-it-out fic, very much in classic drearburh fashion (heed the tags). i love how gideon's perspective is written in this fic, her anger and grief is so satisfyingly done here. also this fic is tagged "kinda sexual wound fingering" which is hilarious, even if the fic isn't.

murphy's law T - kitahart / @punkwixes unfinished multi-chapter modern university au. harrow is a stage manager putting on a production of hamlet at her university. the dialogue is fucking hilarious. the tension between all the characters is so thick you could cut it with a knife. the prose is wonderful. unfortunately this fic has been unfinished for over two years, but the chapters that are available are an absolute treat.

was gonna die young (now i gotta wait for you honey) T - corpsesoldier / @corpsesoldier short post-ntn oneshot. harrow gives gideon her life back. i will never get tired of any of these kiriona/harrow fics.

loved for the first time (in what seems like forever) G - prettyaveragewhiteshark short oneshot set during gtn. a very sweet and fluffy fic with harrow's anguished confession of feelings and a kiss.

and a partridge in a pear tree T - strangehunger / @strangehunger long modern au oneshot. everyone works at a mall and there is a secret santa amongst the mall employees, and gideon ends up drawing harrow's name. as a former retail professional myself, so much of this fic brought back my fond (nightmarish) memories of working during the holidays. this fic was very funny and the ending was cute and unexpected.

a pair of dull scissors in the yellow light not rated - baladric short post-ntn oneshot. harrow cuts her hair after returning to her body, and gideon comes around to help. i love a good homoerotic haircut but this fic takes the cake with how raw the emotions are. beautifully written.

(i shine only with the light you gave me) T - sashawire / @triglyceride moderately devastating short post-gtn oneshot. god gives harrow her saintly title. i love the prose so much.

We Must Not Be Strangers T - telling_you_stories long oneshot consisting of several scenes from the middle acts of gtn from harrow's perspective. i love alternative pov fics and this fic does such a good job of bridging the gap into what harrow might have been thinking during gtn.

before you leave (remember i was with you) T - Mal_content a new short post-ntn oneshot! kiriona and harrow meet and finally talk about their feelings. this fic is so well written. i absolutely love the dialogue.

touch me again and i'll-- T - zoicite zoicite back at it again with a short oneshot set during gtn. it's the scene that gideon rescues harrow from her bone cocoon and checks her for injuries, but from harrow's pov. this bad boy can fit so much repressed attraction in it.

cut my cord T - cobrakids / @funsizedshark long modern university au oneshot. this fic starts out mostly gen and gets more ship-related halfway through. silas is writing a theology thesis and sets out to interrogate gideon and harrow about the cult they grew up in. harrow, in turn, sets out to protect gideon from silas. there's a very unhinged pool scene, and i love the characterization and prose.

thank you to all the fic authors above for sharing these lovely works with the fandom!

[andy-wm]

When Love Reveals Itself

The intersection of public and private in life and art.

A few years ago I watched Her Private Life, a k-drama starring Park Min-young and Kim Jae-wook, both of whom I love seeing on-screen, and ONE (Jung Jae-won) who is adorably cute in this series.

If you haven't seen it, here's a synopsis...

It's ostensibly about an art gallery curator - Doekmi - and her relationship with Ryan, the newly appointed director of the gallery (a position she deserved but of course didn't get). That part of narrative is a highly satisfying but predictable rom-com.

Doekmi is also a secret fangirl, and tries desperately (hilariously) to hide this side of her life, but that doesn't work out. I love the way this is dealt with and the understanding of the complexities of fan culture shown by the writers and cast. It's very relatable.

But maybe most importantly, this was one of the first k-dramas I watched that had an overtly queer narrative strand. I wont spoil anything but Ryan (Kim Jae-wook) is an absolute fucking legend in his efforts to be an LGBTQIA+ ally, even if he gets EVERYTHING wrong.

So how does this relate to our photo of Jimin, knee deep in water and smiling like this?

Episode 5 of Her Private Life has one of the most poignant scenes I've ever watched in a k-drama.

The scene isn't part of a major plot point but there are SPOILERS here.

The scene centres on an unpublished self-portrait taken by (deceased) renowned photographer-Yoon who was famous for his landscape photography. The portrait was his final photograph, taken just before he died.

The portrait was gifted to a reclusive writer who was lifelong friends with photographer-Yoon. He owns the rights to the photo, and he won't release it for publication.

The portrait in question

Deokmi and Ryan are trying to convince the writer to allow the portrait to be displayed in an upcoming exhibition of work by photographer Yoon. The writer adamantly refuses.

Why?

Yoon is looking at someone he loves.

As Deokmi observes, the portrait shows Yoon smiling not at the camera, but at someone in front of the camera.

He is looking at someone he loves.

For the writer, the portrait reveals too much. It exposes photographer-Yoon's feelings for the person in front of the camera, who is of course the writer himself. The writer knew of Yoon's feelings for him but could never acknowledge them while his friend was alive.

Lets go back to the photo of Jimin.

Something that really struck me about this photo of Jimin is the context of it. It was during the LGO MV shooting. He was splashing Jin and laughing, creating a small, happy moment for the music video (for us).

But covid was rife and the world was at a standstill. Jimin was personally and privately devastated during this time*. It was part of the MV brief, I'm sure, to show that you could still find joy in simple things but we know he himself was not happy.

So the happiness we see in those images is not his personal happiness. Even though he does genuinely look like hes having fun, that happiness is manufactured for us.

And then he looks up at the photographer and this we get this poignant, beautiful smile. Open, unguarded, and holding nothing back, his expression is so soft, so genuinely glad to see the person behind the camera.

He is looking at someone he loves and who he knows loves him in return.

"I see you, and everything is better. The sun comes out because you’re here with me," It says.

There's a stillness in this image, as though Jimin -singled out - stopped what he was doing to look back at the photographer, shutting out all the activity surrounding the two of them and stealing a quiet moment with that person.

And that stolen moment would have remained secret and private forever, had the photographer not shared this photo.

But they did.

The photographer gave it to us.

Was this just for aesthetic reasons?

I don't believe so.

Of course, it is a beautiful portrait of Jimin. Aesthetically and emotively it's a striking photograph, but there must me HUNDREDS of beautiful photos of Jimin. The photographer could have chosen ANY of them. But they chose this one.

Now we have this moment on record.

We get to see Jimin feeling this love. We see him the way the photographer sees him. And yes, we know who he is looking at.

We know who was behind the camera.... because the photograher shared this with us too.

Jungkook makes sure we know who took that photograph.

His Private Life becomes Art

In the drama series, the writer relents and takes Doekmi and Ryan upstairs to show them a locked room. It is full of photographs of himself, taken by photographer-Yoon over many years. In all of the pictures, he looks happy. Deokmi describes it as 'a love letter to the writer, from Photographer Yoon'.

The writer admits that he is ashamed that he never acknowledged Yoon's feelings. He didn't dislike them but he didn't have the courage to respond to them, which is why he can't release the portrait now. He can't reveal to the world how Yoon felt, when its too late to tell him that he knew, and that he didn't reject that love.

Ryan looks around at all the photos and says "Did you really ignore his heart? This smile does not look like it. You did not know your own heart, but photographer Yoon could have known it. As a photographer, how could he not notice it. He knew."

Their Private Life becomes public

That photo of Jimin is everywhere. Jungkook made sure of that.

The reticence of the two men in Her Private Life is nowhere to be found here.

Jungkook took this photo of the man he loves and one look at Jimin's face tells us that love is returned.

Just like photographer Yoon, Jungkook saw it and he knew we would all see it too.

But instead of hiding the picture in a locked room for decades, Jungkook published it in the most public forum imaginable. He put it into the music video for Life Goes On.

He consciously chose for us to see that photo.

Don't forget, he was the director of that music video too...

That private stolen moment, full of love and fondness, shows Jimin at his softest and his most vulnerable.

And maybe that's a side of Jimin only Jungkook sees. Maybe Jungkook wants us to know the Jimin HE knows. The open, unguarded Jimin who wears his heart on his sleeve the way Jungkook does. The most authentic, unafraid, beautiful Jimin.

The Jimin he loves the most.

💛💜

°~☆~°

*He told us in his Vlives, he told us in his album, he told us in his interviews. It was a hard, hard time for him.

[bookyeom]

minghao + “I noticed.”

Sorry this took me so long my friend!!! Here you go!

A/N: If you read and enjoy this, please reblog and/or send a comment! I’d love to know what you think.

Pairing: Minghao x Reader Word Count: 1.5k Warnings: swearing, art slander

Rembrandts, Monets, Picassos, Cézannes. Art pieces you’ve been dying to see since you were young and dreamed of Europe, all replicated in full and brought together in one spot for you to be in awe of.

And yet all you can do is make googly eyes at the man next to you, and hope he doesn’t notice.

Minghao, your classmate. The one you’d had a crush on since he sat next to you in your Race, Gender and Sexuality in Art seminar. The one who had snorted under his breath at a pretentious comment made by your balding, white, British professor, and who had subsequently made the professor look stupid when he’d been called out. You were impressed at the audacity of the dark-haired boy, and you’d told him so. A simple ‘nice one’ was what you’d whispered after the scene had died down, and you’d been rewarded with a smile and a giggle so different from the persona he presented that it had stunned you. (You hadn’t done much but stare at him for a solid minute after he thanked you and turned back to the lesson, so confused as you were by this boy that you’d never met before in your life.)

Since that first day, you’d sat next to each other, and you’d quickly decided that your new goal for the semester was not to get good grades – it was to make Xu Minghao laugh. 

“Why is this class about race and gender being taught by an old, white man anyway?” He’d asked under his breath another day, and the snort you’d involuntarily let out was rewarded with another giggle from him. The amount of times the two of you have been shushed by your professor has quickly gotten out of hand, but you don’t care. Minghao tends to say exactly what you’re thinking, and you’re in awe of how easily he’s able to verbalize his thoughts. You’re in awe of him for a lot of reasons, actually; he’s good at art, he’s intelligent, he’s hilarious.

He’s also terribly cute, which has proven to be entirely devastating for you.

You’re friends, of that much you were sure, but you never could really read into it much more than that. The two of you had exchanged phone numbers early on, sending messages mostly about your homework at first, but it had quickly progressed into jokes about your professor and had snowballed from there. Soon after, the flirting had begun, and you had been incredibly confused and unsure because he had been so Minghao about it all.

Then one evening you’d gotten a text from him that read: ‘Do you want to go out with me to the City Art Show tomorrow? I got two tickets,’ and you’d nearly shit yourself. 

Y/N (7:56pm): just us two?

Hao (7:57pm): that’s usually what a date is, yeah ;)

And now here you are, almost exactly 24 hours later, entirely unable to focus on some of your favourite artwork because of him. It isn’t your fault that he looks so good. He always does, but you’ve never seen him like this before – dressed up far more than his usual baggy hoodie, looking every bit like your art hoe dream boyfriend. What are you supposed to do other than look?

Thankfully, you manage to make it out of the museum without him calling you out on it, much to your relief. He suggests a walk, and you’re grateful for the fresh air, trying your best to suppress all thoughts of holding his hand as you stroll. The two of you eventually find a bench, and you’re fidgeting with your fingers when he speaks up.

“Did you like the museum?”

“Yeah,” you reply quickly. Wish I’d gotten to see more of it without you distracting me, you gorgeous motherfucker. 

“What was your favourite part?”

“Um…” You wrack your brain in an attempt to remember something, anything, about what you’d seen. “The Monet one?” 

You watch as Minghao’s face falls. “Oh… yeah.”

“You know, the one with the flowers?” Why are you still talking?

“Right,” Minghao says, monotone, and you really wish you could melt into one of the puddles on the ground below you. It’s silent, and he doesn’t try again, and you turn towards him abruptly.

“Minghao,” you say, a little desperate, and you hope he can’t tell that you’re sinking right now as you try to come up with something to explain yourself. “I don’t know if you noticed, but I wasn’t really looking at the artwork much–”

“I noticed,” Minghao says resignedly. “That’s too bad. I really thought you’d like the exhibit.”

“I did,” you try to explain, but you know there’s no real way out of this without telling him the truth. “I mean, I tried to! I just didn’t… absorb much of it. I’m tired, I think, and I–”

“It’s okay,” Minghao says with a shrug that you think is meant to appear nonchalant, but you can tell he’s dejected by the way he’s leaning back against the bench, arms crossed in front of him. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not for everyone.”

You stare at him for a moment, brain running a million miles a minute. Then you snap.

“Oh my god, Minghao,” you whine, “I’ve been dying to come here. When you asked me, I almost levitated. I wanted to look at it all, but I couldn’t stop looking at you the whole time!”

Minghao blinks.

You blink back.

You’re absolutely mortified. 

Your hands fly up to cover your face, willing for the ground beneath your feet to open up and swallow you whole. 

“Hey,” he says, and you suddenly register the soft squeak of his giggle. 

You peer over at him through your fingers to find him absolutely beaming. Was he laughing at you? You hide behind your hands again, trying to figure out how best to escape this disaster. 

“Come on,” he tries again, “look at me.” 

You can hear him smiling.

You startle as you feel fingers gently curl around your wrists, but you don’t resist as Minghao gently pulls your hands down and away from your face. He lets go once he can see you again, one of his hands lifting to scratch at his ear, and you can’t help but watch the movement. Are the tips of his ears red?

“I’m sorry,” he starts, and you can tell he’s trying not to smile again as the corners of his mouth turn up. “I just really thought you were bored the whole time,” he explains, and you know you’re in for it when he smirks. “I have to say, I find this reason much more interesting.”

You groan, and he giggles again, and you hate how damn cute he is. 

“I’m going to go and hide my face forever now,” you announce, rising onto your feet so quickly that you almost trip. 

“Hey,” Minghao protests. He’s fast to stand up, too, catching your elbow before you can eat shit. “Don’t do that.” You look up at him in question, and he adds, “...Professor Mackenzie is going to miss you if you hide your face forever.” 

You gape at him for a second, and then you’re turning on your heel and getting ready to make a run for it.

You don’t make it very far before his hand finds your sleeve, pulling you back, and you’re surprised when you find yourself flush against his chest. He’s laughing, but his arms are around you as he squeezes you in a quick hug before he’s letting you go, so fast you can barely process, his hands on your arms as he grins down at you.

“I’m sorry,” he tries, and you pout involuntarily. “I was distracted in there too, you know.”

You scoff. “Sure.” 

“I’ve come here before, so I didn’t need to focus so much on the art,” Minghao continues, ignoring you. “What I had to focus on this time was not looking at you.”

It takes you a minute to process his words. “You’re just saying that because I said it first,” you finally say after a minute, ignoring the fluttering in your chest at the thought, and Minghao shakes his head.

“It’s true. I always feel like that when you’re around – in class, too. And you look really pretty today.”

You have to physically stop your mouth from falling open. What the hell?

“Oh,” is all you manage, and then he’s biting back a smile again.

“Yeah, oh,” he returns, squeezing your arms fondly. “So if you can forgive me for not focusing tonight because I was looking at you, then I’ll forgive you for it, too.”

“Deal.” You stick out your hand and he shakes it with another giggle. You feel a cheeky smile finding its way onto your own lips as you add, “And don’t worry about me not seeing the art… I found another subject far more riveting anyway.” 

Your new goal: to make Xu Minghao blush more often.

Tags: @savventeen @wqnwoos @starsstuddedsky @dejavernon @tae-bebe

Message me if you want to be added to the permanent taglist! &lt;3

[aryas-faces]

Ranking Season 2 Episodes

1) Episode 4: The Red Dragon and the Gold

The only episode I came away from thinking, “That was amazing.” This episode is Aegon’s arc to this point coming to a head; his council is making decisions and corresponding to each other without including him, everyone humiliating him and being callous to his emotions, and when he speaks to Alicent, she double downs what everyone else says: Aegon is useless and will never be a good King so let her and the council be in charge. And this sends Aegon spiraling; so he desperately tries to prove himself and gets betrayed by the person he trusts the most in the world: his younger brother. It is an incredible character arc, the best of the season, and to be honest, I think it elevates the book which says Aegon is fearful, feeling vulnerable, and in over his head, the one part if the show that really expands on the book. I know that some people don’t like what this episode does with Aemond, I don’t mind it. Aemond is a psychopath in the book, and it’s kinda vague if he meant to hurt Aegon or not. The build up to the battle is incredible and emotional and I love how it focuses just on Aegon and Rhaenys and their dragons, the victims of the battle. The battle itself is intense: I was full body shaking during it. The aftermath is also horrifying, seeing the horrors a dragon is capable of. The only down side of this episode is that they try to give Rhaenyra a divine reason to go to war to sanitize her

2) Episode 1: A Son for a Son

Blood and Cheese ruined what otherwise is a good episode. Aegon is hilarious in this episode, Rhaenyra looking for Lucerys’ remains was heartbreaking and than terrifying when she returned to her council looking crazed and wanting blood to spill because of this with villain music behind her (back when I still had hope we were getting book Rhaenyra.) but of course, B&C being ruined puts a stain on the episode

3) Episode 2: Rhaenyra the Cruel

Oh the title of this. The sarcasm/propaganda of it told me we were never getting book Rhaenyra, especially with how she reacts to Blood and Cheese in sadness. I hate the propaganda angle they took with B&C when it really was because of Rhaenyra and Daemon. However, the acting of the Greens this episode is the all around best acting all season. Rhys is cold and calculating and manipulative. Phia is horrified and devastated. Olivia is depressed and guilty. And this is just straight up Tom’s Emmy episode. His rage and grief and despair is so real

4) Episode 7: The Red Sowing

The public shaming of Daemon is enough to make this the best of the Black episodes. Maybe I’m weird, but in isolation, I love the Alicent in the lake scene. It was artsy. Aegon trying to recover is so heartbreaking and his pain is so visceral. The sowing is straight out of a horror movie. The seeds for Rhaenyra the Cruel have planted in this episode, now they need to go through with it (I doubt they will)

5) Episode 3: The Burning Mill

The Green council scene is great, everything with Aegon is great (as usual. he’s the only consistent great this season). I love the shot of him looking in the mirror and half his face is in the dark, foreshadowing his fate. I like Baela hunting the Green army, it’s intense. However, the Septa Rhaenyra scene is GOT season 7 level bad. At least Alicent told her to go fuck off

6) Episode 6: Smallfolk

Why are the smallfolk starving? Why are they blaming Aegon when in ep 1 he was trying to help? Why are they saint-ifying Rhaenyra when she’s the reason they’re starving? Why are they attacking Alicent and Helaena when they’re supposed to be beloved? Why are Rhaenyra and Mysaria kissing when they barely have a bond? At least we get great scenes of Aegon, and Alicent being gentle with his body as she cries and says sorry

7) Episode 5: Regent

WHY IS DAEMON MAKING OUT WITH HIS MOM?! Why is Alicent having a panic attack about not being Regent and not Aegon? Why are they focusing on the Blacks when the Greens have so much more plot and character potential with post Rook’s Rest? I love the sad, heroic, tragic music they played behind Aegon being brought back, and his “mummy” was soul crushing and stole the episode

8) Episode 8

I’m not calling it the queen who ever was. What a shit show. Sexually humiliating Aegon (and putting Tom in uncomfortable situations), the stupid flash forwards with Daemon, “Winter is Coming” gave me visceral cringe (they better not make it so that it’s the Stark words because Rhaenyra said it to them, they better fucking not). The character assassination of Alicent is one of the worst I’ve ever seen. The only good is Tom still putting his heart and soul into Aegon even when saying lines designed humiliate him. And Criston’s lines about dragon battle

[skittishlikefromthewar]

my favorite headcanon to ponder is that as soon as they enter the Champions League - and it becomes official that this level of cardiovascular training is going to become Jamie's new longterm normal - Roy immediately bans him from running on pavement (so that he'll still have cartilage in his knees by age 60, and because no trainer ever cared enough to do that for Roy and he's gonna do better by Jamie if it kills him).

However...

--they can't limit all his running to a treadmill or track either, because that's a GREAT way to get hurt when he's on the pitch. 

Cue a hilarious montage of Jamie biking to some park, folding the bike to carry over a shoulder while running through said park, hopping back on the bike once he reaches the road, biking until he reaches a grass/dirt track along the river, running until the dirt track runs out, biking again, etc.

Cut to a shot of Roy frowning studiously because This Isn't Working Out, before he turns to Jamie and dead-serious, he asks, "Can you run the pavement on your hands?"

And Jamie is 😭😭😭 on the inside but verbally he's just "uh....yeah! Yeah sure I mean yeah no don't think so but yeah sure yeah why not I'll give it a go?"

Cut to Jamie managing seven whole haphazard steps in a handstand before, "aiyeeee..." and a close-up of Roy cringing with his fists over his mouth. 

Cut to Roy frowning studiously again. This time Jamie's got a big abrasion on his cheek. Again, deadly serious-

"Could you cartwheel the asphalt bits?"

Cut to Jamie cartwheeling over and over and over like. well, like a wheel, making good speed...

in a very much NOT straight line, until he cartwheels right into a bush.

"Well." Roy's got his studious frown, Jamie's got his scraped cheek and leaves in his hair. "I think we're out of options."

And Jamie's face falls. "Coach no. Please I can figure it out. Just need to keep trying things don't I?"

But Roy's shaking his head. 

And Jamie just looks sadder and sadder, and he starts to look a little scared. "Coach really I can just run the pavement like I used to it's f-"

"Nope. I'm calling it."

We linger on Jamie's devastated face. 

Quick cut to Jamie's torso. He's running on the road. He reaches the park. He runs through the park and reaches pavement again. He runs the pavement until he reaches the dirt track by the river. He runs the dirt track until it ends, transitioning straight onto the road once again. Scene cuts to him panting at Richmond Green once he's all done. He slowly straightens up, turning to Roy (who it's revealed bicycled the whole way with him) with the angriest, most murderous glare we've ever seen cross Jamie's face.

Roy breaks into his first grin of the entire montage. 

We finally pan down to Jamie's feet

--clad in every runner's favorite pseudo-orthopedic clown shoes. They let you run on a beautiful, cartilage-preserving cloud (edit: ASSUMING you don't immediately let your stride get sloppy, which people often do! that's important, can't believe i didn't say it initially!) and not even Jamie can make them look slick. 

*This post dedicated to my own hoka-related humiliations. They're lovely at what they're designed for but oyyyye. tbf hoka does make slightly less gigantic, less hideous models (ones that visually limit themselves to the type of loud garishness that Jamie would actually probably adore). But also tbf, you KNOW Roy would insist on Jamie cycling through the dumbest, ugliest, most embarrassing, "it's yer fuckin knees, Tartt come on!" models he could find. 

(Bonus: Practically overnight, Jamie suddenly becomes an expert in every dirt, grass, and otherwise natural running trail in all of London because as long as there's no concrete or asphalt anywhere on his run, he can go back to his normal low drop shoes.) (Edit: which, to reiterate, is a much better choice for both your joints and feet, than running pavement in hokas!)

[mermaidlighthouse]

Look it’s a devastating moment (even if you didn’t/don’t love Izzy like I do because if watching Ed truly sob doesn’t tear your heart out idk what to tell you) but when everyone takes their hats off after Izzy’s death Fang also removing his headband is objectively funny because the idea of him holding it in front of his chest like an actual hat is hilarious

Fang is my gooey gumdrop and I love him so dearly every time I’m crying over this scene I look at this teddy bear of a man and while I know he’s hurting I can’t help but laugh